1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technology for forming a three-dimensional (3D) model of skin and mandible by automatic image segmentation, and more particularly, to a method for forming a 3D maxillofacial model by automatic medical image segmentation, which may rapidly and efficiently form a 3D model of skin and mandible by combining a macroscopic 3D multi-segmentation technique and 2D detailed segmentation technique, an automatic image segmentation and model formation server performing the same, and a storage medium storing the same.
2. Discussion of Related Art
The mandible is a bone that is mainly used to chew food and an important portion to hold the contours of the face. In the mandible, orthognathic surgery is carried out for mainly cosmetic purposes, and mandibular fracture surgery due to trauma and mandibular resection due to cancer are carried out. In a case of reconstructive surgery other than a cosmetic purpose, when a surgery to replace the mandible using the fibula of a patient is carried out, soft tissue removal and ostectomy are carried out together with several departments such as dentistry, otolaryngology, surgery, and the like, and the reconstructive surgery is one of surgeries with a high level of difficulty which takes more than 10 hours. As a method for increasing the success rate of such a surgery with the high level of difficulty and reducing the operation time, three-dimensional (3D) virtual surgical planning techniques have been recently tried. In the prior art, a doctor directly performs a manual image segmentation work for modeling a human body part that is required during a surgery, and therefore a period of about a week or more to plan the surgery has been spent and such a manual modeling results in a decrease in interobserver agreement.
In addition, in Korea Patent Publication No. 10-2006-0028044 which relates to a 3D finite element modeling method using two-dimensional (2D) medical images and a storage medium, a method of performing computer simulation by configuring a 3D shape model has been disclosed. However, as the specific method thereof, an object and a background are separated from the 2D medical images, the 2D images from which the background is separated are stacked, and then the outlines of the stacked images are connected to each other to form a 3D shape model whose inside is empty, and the 3D shape model whose volume is filled with triangular pyramid-shaped tetrahedron elements is finally generated by adjusting the accuracy of the 3D shape model, so that the 3D shape model is generated only through a process of separating the background and the object, and therefore a difference between an actual structure of the object and the generated 3D shape model may occur. In this case, it may be unsuitable to establish a surgical plan, and therefore the above-described problem still exists.
Therefore, there is a demand for an automatic segmentation based-3D modeling technique for efficient and stable surgical plan and simulation.